Some days an extra something special is needed to get a smile. Where contentedness is elusive and stress is the norm, a deep sigh of rest is refreshing. That’s the kind of smile I needed when I looked out my back door window.

On the porch were a bunch of chairs. Red chairs. They had been old, rusty church castaways when I rescued and painted them. Don’t they look fun and inviting?

On this Memorial Day, I’m going to go out into the Africa hot sun, grill some meat and take a deep restful sigh. Yes, sir, I’m going to smile and be thankful for blessings both grand and simple.

Consider grabbing an old rusty chair and either dream of how to recreate it or just sit in it while remembering blessings. May you get to relax and smile this Memorial Day.

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I don’t know when it happened, but my arms changed. They got shorter, weaker too. It was obvious their strength would no longer allow arm-wrestling with the kids. I understood the strength loss, but shorter? I was quite bumfuzzled. Doesn’t osteoporosis diminish height instead of arms?

I hope I don’t have a weird bone disease.

First Symptom

The first short-arm symptom showed when the kids brought me their homework. With their scribbling in hand, I hyper-extended my elbows in order to make sense of it. While doing what I’ve always done, I was astounded with how tired my weak, shortened arms got.

That’s when I decided to get in shape. Surely a strenuous workout schedule focusing on arm strengthening would help. But even with six months of pumping iron at The Nautilus, my arms were still dwindling.

Their length used to be perfect for reading iPhone messages, enjoying Mary DeMuth’s Daisy Chain and studying my leather-like bound Bible. Now, I’m in a quandary. I don’t know what else to do about my incredible shrinking arms.

Some might disbelieve in the profound degeneration of my limbs. They may scoff and tease, or make wild suggestions like it isn’t my arms at all. But I know.

I know something’s wrong.

Diagnosis

Then headaches became the norm, but only when my eyes were open. I decided to see Dr. Means and discovered he is the kindest sort of mean. He laughed at me, spoke truth over my circumstance, then diagnosed me with multi-focal instead of some strange osteoporosis.

Apparently, my incredible shrinking arms were not so . . . Well, let’s just say I was wrong. I now sport new contacts and can’t believe the detail in the leaves on the trees.

Eye-opening Experience

Isn’t it eye-opening how our experience or understanding is limited. We are so sure of what we know. It’s like we’re stuck in the teen years—I know, I know—when we are clueless. God can say in truth, “I know.” He is the wisest. He knows everything and if we allow him to lead, we will not go off in obscure, weird ways of thinking and living.

“A person who has Christ as his Master is the master of every circumstance” (Streams in the Desert, p. 184).

God takes care of me. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you [God] preserve my life” (Psalm 138:7).

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Today, on the National Day of Prayer, many pointless prayers will go nowhere. There is a time where prayer for our nation, our leaders and our families are noticed by God. But that season is after a reflective prayer where we humbly approach God in repentance acknowledging our wrong doings and dependence upon his forgiveness. Without that personal relationship and preface to prayer, we are participating in meaningless utterances.

As a “praying” nation, we fashion a god and clothe him to fit our belief. We are a spiritual, religious people like those in Jeremiah 10:1-10. In our minds we adorn god with garments of gold, making him some sort of controllable idol, boxing him in a manageable package that fit whatever limitation our faith holds.

God is beyond measure, beyond comprehension, beyond our ability to grasp entirely. We cannot explain him. We cannot contain him. We cannot pray to him on our terms. We must read his letter to us, the Bible, to catch a glimpse of the holy God we want to petition in prayer.

When we do . . .

When we seek him, we will find him, especially when we seek him with all our hearts (Deuteronomy 4:29, 1 Chronicles 28:9). God wants to relate with us. He wants us to pray, to have conversations with him—both listening and talking. But we must pray on his terms: humbly, repentant and personal followed by corporate repentance (2 Chronicles 7:14, Romans 10:9-10).

Instead of a national day of religious whims, how awesome would be a national day of repentance, prayer on God’s terms.

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